Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. VI, No. 8      March 26 - April 1, 2006      Quezon City, Philippines

HOME

ARCHIVE

CONTACT

RESOURCES

ABOUT BULATLAT

www.bulatlat.com

www.bulatlat.net

www.bulatlat.org

 

Google


Web Bulatlat

READER FEEDBACK

(We encourage readers to dialogue with us. Email us your letters complaints, corrections, clarifications, etc.)
 

Join Bulatlat's mailing list

 

DEMOCRATIC SPACE

(Email us your letters statements, press releases,  manifestos, etc.)

 

 

For turning the screws on hot issues, Bulatlat has been awarded the Golden Tornillo Award.

Iskandalo Cafe

 

Copyright 2004 Bulatlat
bulatlat@gmail.com

   

Baguio Journalists Sign Court of Appeals Petition for Press Freedom

Thirteen community journalists and four media organizations from Baguio City are the latest signatories to a petition filed in the Court of Appeals which seeks to stop government agencies from muzzling the press.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY (246 kms from Manila) – For Baguio-based journalists, distance is never a factor in supporting worthy causes.

Thirteen journalists and four media organizations here affixed their signatures last March 20 as co-petitioners in the case filed at the Court of Appeals (CA) prohibiting selected government agencies from muzzling the press through “content-based prior restraint.” Stressing that they are just the first batch of signatories, they hope that their initiative will snowball so that other journalists will know the importance of the petition.

GAG US NOT: Baguio journalists add their signatures to the petition initiated by Manila-based journalists at the Court of Appeals against media repression. Assisting the journalists is noted human rights lawyer Pablito Sanidad (standing in white barong) of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).

NORDIS PHOTO

The 13 signatories were Artemio Dumlao (Philippine Star); Tom Picaña (Manila Times); Kathleen Okubo (Baguio Midland Courier); Robert Tabay (DZEQ); Malou Guieb (Business Mirror); Maria Elena Catajan and Nick Canilao (Malaya and Zigzag Weekly); Art Allad-Iw and Lyn Ramo (Northern Dispatch); and Angelica Campo, Erwilyn Lei Solito, Ryan Manzano, Daniel dela Cruz (College Editors Guild of the Philippines or CEGP).

Four media organizations also signed the petition, namely the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Baguio-Benguet chapter (NUJP-BB), Philippine Press Photographers Club-Baguio Benguet, Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club and CEGP.

The signing happened at the office of human rights lawyer Pablito Sanidad, chair of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).

The CA petition was filed last March 8 by eight media organizations, the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) and 37 journalists and journalism educators. It seeks to prohibit the Executive Secretary, Department of Justice (DOJ), Philippine National Police (PNP), and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from imposing any content-based prior restraint on media.

Though there is no reported suppression yet by government agencies against the media here, the Baguio-based co-petitioners claimed that the PNP, DOJ and NTC continue to impose content-based prior restraint despite Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s lifting of Proclamation No. 1017.

Violating media rights

Sanidad said that the CA petition is very important to journalists outside Metro Manila as they are more vulnerable to harassment and intimidation since they are less organized.

Noting the difference with the one filed at the Supreme Court questioning Proclamation No. 1017, the CA petition focuses on the constitutional rights of media practitioners and the threat on their role in bringing out information the public needs. He cited the PNP’s move to raid the office of The Daily Tribune and the monitoring of journalists and media organizations. “The Supreme Court case is more on the legality of PP 1017 where the rights involved include political rights like the warrantless arrest, banning of marches, etc.” 

While PP 1017 was already lifted, Sanidad stressed that there still exists a “creeping kind of authoritarianism measure. It is calibrated to intimidate which has the same effect – the denial of press freedom.”

Campaign

Not confining themselves to the legal struggle, the signatories will adopt other means of protest to show their unity against creeping authoritarianism, said Dumlao, chairperson of the Baguio-Benguet’s  National Union of Journalist of the Philippines (NUJP). He urged other media practitioners to also sign as co-petitioners. Bulatlat

 

BACK TO TOP ■  PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION  ■   COMMENT

 

© 2006 Bulatlat  Alipato Publications

Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.